Literacy took center stage in Oyster Bay on Tuesday, as Oyster Bay-East Norwich Central School District principals led a presentation detailing where the district is proving strong in reading and writing skills, and where students need work.
Principals Devra Small, of Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School, and Anastasia Smith, of James H. Vernon School, outlined progress in literacy education and offered a glimpse into the science-backed approach guiding their efforts.
Over the past year, the district has prioritized aligning its reading curriculum and instructional practices with the latest research on literacy, Small and Smith explained. The effort involved an extensive review of current programs and the development of initiatives aimed at bolstering students’ reading and comprehension skills.
“This visual is a brief summary of some of the components involved in reading,” Smith said, displaying a graphic that highlighted what she described as the dual focus of literacy education: word recognition and comprehension. “Word recognition ensures students can decode and recognize words quickly,” she said, “freeing them to focus on comprehension, which involves vocabulary, background knowledge and understanding structure.”
The district’s literacy improvement initiative began last spring, with a committee of educators from kindergarten through high school, including specialists in English as a New Language, special education and reading intervention. They conducted a comprehensive study of reading science, compared current practices with research-based rubrics, and identified the strengths and weaknesses of the district’s existing programs.
The result was a decision to retain and enhance current literacy programs while addressing gaps. The district partnered with Literacy Matters, an organization that specializes in professional development and curriculum design, to guide the effort.
Last summer, a second committee focused on elementary education, reviewing the curriculum month by month, from kindergarten through fifth grade, to identify areas needing improvement. This group also developed a detailed grammar curriculum aligned with state standards, focusing on grade-specific learning objectives.
“We realized the state standards for grammar were broad and often spanned multiple grades,” Small said. “So we broke them down into clear, grade-by-grade goals and presented them to Literacy Matters for their input.”
The principals also credited the district’s newly created elementary curriculum associate position for facilitating curriculum advancements and coordinating efforts between schools and with the high school team.
The partnership with Literacy Matters has yielded a multi-year plan to develop integrated thematic units for literacy instruction. Those units, designed to align with state standards, incorporate science or social studies themes alongside core literacy skills.
“We began this year with two units for kindergarten and first grade,” Smith said. “Next year we’ll add two more units for these grades, and begin developing units for grades two and three, with plans to continue expanding through fifth grade by 2028.”
Small and Smith highlighted positive trends in student performance, drawing on data from the i-Ready assessment and other metrics. A comparison of fall 2020 and fall 2024 data showed a drop in the percentage of students performing below grade level from 16 percent to 12 percent, and an increase in students performing above grade level, from 23 percent to 33 percent.
“Phonemic awareness has emerged as a strong area, thanks to our adoption of the Hegarty phonemic awareness program,” Small said, referring to the ability to identify and manipulate the smallest units of sound in words, like the “b” in bat. “However, our data also revealed a relative weakness in informational reading comprehension, underscoring the importance of our work with Literacy Matters to build content knowledge and explicit vocabulary instruction.”
The district has also expanded its use of the phonics-based literacy program Fundations to third grade, and introduced Just Words, a program targeting older students with decoding and spelling challenges.
In addition to literacy instruction, Small and Smith showcased examples of project-based learning initiatives designed to foster student engagement. These allow students to explore topics of their choice in depth and present their findings creatively, and to collaborate across disciplines, including music and art.
“Students can create videos, board games, songs, models, or even dioramas to teach others about their chosen topics,” Smith said. “It’s been a wonderful opportunity for teachers and students alike to tap into their creativity.”
The presentation concluded with a look at the district’s evolving approach to sixth-grade math instruction. By restructuring daily schedules to emphasize shorter, high-impact lessons and small-group learning during an Empower period, the district has seen a 13 percent increase in the portion of students scoring at proficient levels over the past two years.
The principals praised the Board of Education for its support of these initiatives, and expressed optimism about the district’s continued progress. “Our work is paying off,” Small said. “We’re ensuring that all students receive the structured literacy support they need to become confident, capable readers and writers.”
